The General Practitioners Learning Path is a collection of MindEd e-learning sessions, written by clinicians, suggested by the Royal College of General Practitioners for busy GPs wanting to learn more about children and young people’s mental health.

It is a unique resource which has been divided into three sections reflecting the different needs of GPs depending on their stage of the professional journey:

The Core Curriculum has 23 sessions which form the basis of a GP’s expected working knowledge of children and young people’s mental health. As such they are the starting point for GP Registrars, established GPs who may not have had prior access to such up-to-date and comprehensive information, and GPs working in child and adolescent psychiatry as part of their vocational training.

Examples include understanding the influences on child development which support good mental health, common or serious problems that are easily missed divided into age appropriate bands and challenging, important topics such as child protection, talking to young people who self-harm and working with hard to reach families.

This section is a suggested curriculum for GPs familiar with the subject matter covered in the Core Curriculum, who want to update their knowledge and learn more about certain aspects of child and youth mental health; often triggered by a particular clinical encounter occurring in practice. Such topics include understanding poor school attendance, problems with sleep and eating to the emotional basis of bowel and bladder control.

This section addresses the needs of GPs who want to extend their practice beyond providing good care for common mental health problems and looks at children who are, for example, loners, aggressive, or manifesting tics and odd movements; amongst other presentations.

Beyond the sessions identified in these three learning journeys there are a huge variety of other sessions freely available through the wider MindEd e-learning portal. You can browse the full range of sessions or search for material using keywords through the site’s home page.

Further information geared specifically to GP’s learning needs and also offering resources which can be shared with young people and their families can be found on the RCGP website in the clinical resources section.